NH Local Government Center’s reorganization plans come under further scrutiny

By TIM BUCKLANDNew Hampshire Union Leader

CONCORD — The possibility that the New Hampshire Local Government Center’s top management staff could, after a planned reorganization of the public insurance administrator’s corporate makeup, continue to work for all of its separate organizations has drawn concern from the Bureau of Securities Regulation.

.Interim Executive Director George Bald said whether LGC, which is proposing to change its name back to the New Hampshire Municipal Association, continues to commingle its staff will be up to the boards of the municipal advocacy, health insurance and property-liability organizations...“The boards will be discussing it as we move further and we move forward,” Bald said.

He said, though, that board members have discussed continuing to share such services as human resources and information technology. And, he said, the boards may decide to hire a single executive director to oversee all of the operations...“That would be a situation where the boards would make that decision,” he said. “They would look out for their separate organizations, but at the same time be looking for ways to make things more efficient.”..LGC has proposed separating its various insurance offerings into wholly owned not-for-profit corporations and eliminating local liability companies that, technically at least, saw LGC collecting money and operating its services with for-profit companies. New Hampshire law does not allow for not-for-profit LLCs...Barry Glennon, director of the Bureau of Securities Regulation, said the bureau would like an answer to LGC’s plans for sharing staff before, not after, the reorganization happens. Public hearings on the restructuring are set for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday...“We posed this question to LGC over a week ago as to whether current management and staff will continue to be employed by any of the new entities and whether they will continue to provide management services to the two risk pool management programs,” he said. “It seems to me this is a matter that should be addressed by the various boards well in advance of any reorganization and not after the fact.”..And Glennon said that, for the new corporations to be separate, they need separate individual staff leadership.

“It is the Bureau’s opinion that it is impossible for the separate risk pools to be truly independent when they share common management,” he said...LGC had planned to complete the restructuring by July 1, but a letter from Glennon to LGC with a host of questions about the plan saw the agency decide to slow down.